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Does mock-up at Statehouse mock Holocaust memorial?

Departing chief of Capitol Square board said he wanted to show what project will look like

View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoAlex Holt | DispatchDana Harlow of Dublin is “taken aback” by the mock-up of the planned Holocaust memorial erected on the Statehouse lawn across from the Ohio Theatre.

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The beginning of the end of Richard H. Finan’s two-decade tenure as stubborn bulldog overseer of the Ohio Statehouse began on May 4, 2011, when an emotional Gov. John Kasich called for construction of a Holocaust memorial.

Two years later — and two days before a final vote on a $2 million Holocaust memorial that Finan staunchly opposes for the Statehouse grounds — the former Senate president said he has submitted his resignation from the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board. He has been chairman of the oversight panel since it was created in 1991.

He is going out with a flourish, having this week ordered state employees to construct a ramshackle mock-up of the memorial made of plastic pipes, barrels, rope and a tarp with a blue Star of David painted on it on the site of the memorial. Finan said he wanted people to see what the memorial will look like in that location.

The mock-up cost $750, which apparently will be billed to the Holocaust memorial fund. The entire project is privately funded with the exception of site preparation, which will be paid for by the state.

Finan told The Dispatch he submitted his resignation effective on Oct. 30, in part because of the clash with Kasich over the Holocaust memorial.

“I don’t think the board is performing the way it was meant to anymore. I’m frustrated but I can’t do anything about it. I think it’s time to leave.”

Finan, of Cincinnati, said the board he led for two decades “was set up to be the intermediary between the state and all the other tenants in the building. It was supposed to control the building, but that has changed dramatically.”

Finan, 78, a Republican, served 24 years in the Ohio Senate, including the last four as president. He served in the Ohio House before that.

The mock-up infuriated Nina Libeskind, a partner with her architect husband, Daniel Libeskind, who was picked to design the Statehouse memorial. She called it “very cynical.”

“Both of us are very disappointed that such a mock-up would be used. It’s very cynical and not at all what it will look like,” Mrs. Libeskind said. “It is a clear attempt to show what is not real and subvert the process. This is not what we presented.”

Finan will lead the board meeting at 10 a.m. on Thursday when the memorial is expected to get final approval. Work will begin soon, with completion expected next spring or summer.

The design features an 18-foot-tall memorial with a star carved out between two adjoining bronze panels. A 40-foot walkway and memorial words etched in limestone will lead up to the memorial.

Finan says that a Holocaust memorial is inappropriate for the Civil War-era Statehouse.

He also lost another recent battle with Kasich and Public Safety Director Thomas P. Charles, who said the Statehouse needs added security. The new state budget allocated $1.2 million for additional State Highway Patrol troopers, security cameras, an X-ray machine and magnetic wands at three entrances. Finan said more security would discourage Statehouse visitors.

Finan was the undisputed champion of a massive $112 million Statehouse renovation from 1993 to 1996. The project converted what had had been a decaying building chopped up into dozens of small offices into a working center of government that looks much as it did when it opened during the Civil War.